The Fraunhofer Center for Sustainable Energy Systems (CSE), a US-based non-profit applied research and development center, works with partners from across the solar, photovoltaics, building technology, and materials fields. We offer comprehensive support for development, testing, evaluation, education, and marketing of new technologies with considerable flexibility in project structure and intellectual property concerns. We work with a wide variety of clients, ranging from large multinational corporations to small startups and academic research groups.

We perform applied research and development work with partners and clients, including:

Collaborative Research with Industry

The Fraunhofer CSE works with commercial partners to help develop, test, assess, and measure new products and systems.

Third-Party Validation

As a neutral party and trusted name, Fraunhofer CSE can confidentially evaluate materials and system performance. Fraunhofer's assessments carry the weight of Europe's largest applied contract R&D group, an organization with over 60 years of experience.

Grant Partnerships

With its focus on applied research, the Fraunhofer CSE is an ideal complement to academic and industrial partners interested in responding to government grant solicitations in research areas of common interest. In this area the CSE's scientific capabilities are matched by many years of in-house grantwriting expertise.

Start-Up Proof of Concept

The CSE's TechBridge Program fosters promising clean technologies and start-ups, providing technical guidance, equipment, and access to venture capital at the most critical phases.